By Brian James and Leigh Maynard
Yoav Hadari is an emerging designer who has been on our radar throughout their time at Central Saint Martins, and we were delighted to be invited to see their inaugural collection entitled “DE-STILLED”, which debuted during London Fashion Week as part of the 2022 CSM graduate show.
A scholar at London based creative incubator the Sarabande Foundation, Yoav was selected to receive a scholarship for this esteemed organisation by fashion royalty, the designer Iris Van Herpen. They also worked for four years with the equally iconic duo Thom Browne and Daniel Roseberry, the latter having now moved on to become Creative Director at Schiaparelli.
Their collection exceeded our wildest expectations with garments that subverted the traditional constructs of tailoring and dressmaking and demonstrated a meticulously accomplished knowledge of draping and pattern cutting techniques. They also demonstrated Yoav’s acute awareness of the existential climate crisis we all face, with the pieces made mainly by hand using deadstock and recycled materials.
Created during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, it’s inspired by the 1960s modernists and 70s surrealist filmmakers and painters. Imbued with the theme of self-transformation, which embodied and emboldened those previous generations, that desire for transformative change is equally relevant today as we look to make sense of and navigate a post-pandemic landscape.
It’s the distillation of these myriad experiences and influences which Yoav Hadari has drawn from to create their stunning debut collection “DE-STILLED”.
We sat down with Yoav to ask about the personal and creative path that led them from University in Israel to London, culminating in them showing a hugely lauded CSM graduate collection, the challenges they have experienced along the way and their goals and aspirations for the future.
IMAGE CREDITS
Egg Accessories by Lottie Fenby (Millliner) @LOTTIEFENBY
Photography Ari Clark, @thatplatinumphotographer
Model : Bianca Huisman @bianca_huisman
casting by Pupperbitch Management @pupperbitch
Hair + Make Up by Chad Taber (hair stylist) @chad.taber
You initially studied design and engineering at Shenkar University in Isreal. Did you always know that you wanted to be a fashion designer, and was there a particular person or designer that inspired you on your journey
To quickly answer the first question – no, I didn’t always know I wanted to be a fashion designer. And to be honest, being a fashion designer is a choice you have to keep making every turn in your life as a creative, in my opinion. Because fashion just makes no sense, but it has such a power over our culture and life which is what fascinates me.
I think my very first ambition (and we’re talking toddler years) was to be a filmmaker for Disney Animations. It evolved a few times in my life until I was about 18 and discovered the work of Alexander Mcqueen. That’s when it dawned on me finally that fashion isn’t only a child of colonial and consumerist values but can also be an art form and a way to challenge society. To test my new passion, I wanted to learn sewing and pattern making so I could try to realise some ideas I began having. One of my aunts, Rachel Berman Hadari (at the time was teaching in Shenkar College, where I did my BA eventually), just told me, “If you’re going to go through all the trouble, why not just go study fashion?”
When you were younger, you were a gamer and still use VR to infuse your work today; tell us how the digital world informs your design process?
Yes, between the ages of 14 and 17, my social life was very limited, and I spent most of my days locked up in my bedroom with my computer, playing specifically RPG and MMORPG Fantasy games like World of Warcraft (Blizzard) and skyping friends of mine from Scandinavia.
During the pandemic, when digital fashion was just budding, I created a 3D experience showcasing one digital look in a VR environment, thinking of those times when I used to make most of my connections in Virtual Spaces. This was in collaboration with Petros Lales, a good friend who is a 3D artist based in Brooklyn. We worked together again to create a demo of a fashion game that I called “Quantum Desert” and showcased at the Sarabande Foundation almost exactly a year ago in April. I was also working on these projects while I had a studio at the Sarabande Foundation and had a lot of guidance and support from them regarding initiating and working on these projects. I’m currently working on the NFT counterpart of my business that accompanies the physical collection and takes inspiration from my previous digital works. This includes NFT capsule drops, NFT products and collaborations with artists; it will be available online through platforms like OpenSea in the next year.
You are a Sarabande Foundation Scholar, an organisation that supports
the education of future generations’ most visionary creatives. Tell us how it felt to be selected and recognised by highly regarded industry members, such as Sarah Burton and Nick Knight. What valuable knowledge you have gained through the foundation?
It feels surreal, and I would lie if I said that impostor syndrome is not real. But I will say that the scholarship was the bottom factor that made my move to London possible, as I wouldn’t be able to afford CSM otherwise, and good luck getting a visa without going to school here.
Besides that, Sarabande gave me a community of artists who all became friends and a lot of mentoring through the Sarabande staff and guest mentors like Carlo Brandelli, who has been a big creative mentor during my time at CSM and supported me through some difficult times in the course.
Sarabande also gave me a studio to work in during the second lockdown of 2021, when the university was shut down completely, and I had nowhere to do my creative work for the MA programme, renting a tiny apartment in Haringey with 5 roommates.
It was actually Iris Van Herpen, who I owe the biggest thanks in regards to the Sarabande Foundation scholarship. She was the guest designer who was sitting on the interview panel, along with Fabio Piras (MA Fashion Director @CSM MAF) and Trino Verkade (heading the Sarabande Foundation). Ultimately, the guest designer picks the scholar, and Van Herpen chose me, despite a silly zoom interview where I was boxing up my apartment, and my entire living room was an absolute mess in open view.
Congratulations on your stunning first collection, which you developed between 2020 and 2022. Did you experience any particular challenges developing your collection during the pandemic, and what did you take from that experience?
First of all – Thank you!
To be honest, the main legwork of this collection happened between November 2021 and the show (Feb 2022). But I will use an unusual metaphor being inspired by some nature shows I’ve been watching and regard this collection like a mushroom – It is the body of a network of mycelium that’s been in progress since I moved here for the MA program Oct 2020. It’s not a project I woke up one day and conjured up; it’s been a subconscious journey of forming.
I think the main challenge of developing this collection for me was what I now would call ‘creative jitters’. I came to CSM to learn a new process, but the creative process isn’t new to me, and I’m intuitively very creative. That is never the issue.
I’ve worked in the industry for people like Thom Browne and Daniel Roseberry; I’ve done a lot of creative work and had many a look sent down the runways of Paris – but never for myself, and never under my name. And suddenly, that knowing, while exciting, under isolation and scrutiny from the course at times became overwhelming and took away my inspiration.
I think that this level of visibility can be intimidating to some, and for me, that was the main journey and personal point of growth during CSM and still is.
My main takeaway from this challenge and experience, in general, is that in the end, being creative and wanting to produce work is not about self-expression as a maker only – it’s also about connecting with others and communicating yourself clearly, for the sake of those who might think or feel similar to the way you do. It’s that last part, a trust that you are not alone in this, whatever ‘this’ means to you – that is what still inspires me to keep doing fashion.
You worked under the tutelage of Thom Browne, who is recognised for redefining modern tailoring; what lessons did you learn that you can take into your own design process?
I could write a scroll with the things I learned from Thom Browne, the person and his design studio, my collaborators there and the legacy of his work. I was there for 4 years (2016-2020) and worked on the women’s Runway collection under the direction of Browne and Daniel Roseberry, who was design director at the time, before his move to Schiaparelli and rise into public awareness.
From a design angle, I learned the power of commitment to a vision without apology. Browne is the sort of designer that everyone has an opinion about – they love it or hate it. But one thing it is – recognizable, strong and is in its own world, telling a story. I learned a lot about how to tell a full design story because I worked hard and got involved in all parts of the design process, from sketching looks to embroidery design and then product development with factories. I was involved in the big picture of the collection and then all the details along the way too, which is a rare position to be in for your first job in the industry.
The biggest thing I take away from my time at Thom Browne is quality over quantity – You don’t need a million ideas, SKUs or fabrications in one collection. You can have one very powerful idea, even one fabric, and as long as you’re relentless about exploring it in a new interesting way – it won’t get boring. It’s like an artist making a study of a person, an item or a body part – drawing the same thing again and again till you nail it down. From Thom Browne, the person I learned how to be a boss that encourages the creativity of their employees, giving them the environment and the tools to experiment with new ideas and techniques.
Your collection is entitled De-Stilled tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind the name and how you explored subversion through tailoring to push the boundaries of traditional craftsmanship and genderless fashion?
DE-STILLED is a play on words. I’m horrible that way and love making bad word games; I think it might be something that is more common in Hebrew (my first language). It’s a play between the word Distilled, which means something that has been purified and consolidated to its purest form. I think it is first associated with alchemy, which you could say is an ancient, more spiritual and philosophical form of chemistry. The idea of self-initiated transformation, the distilling of oneself, became a lead inspiration for the concept of this collection. How, from who you are now, do you get to who you want to become. By turning that into De-Stilled, I was also talking about some emotions following the pandemic – wanting to move and burst out – to be back out there in the world after a time of feeling restricted. This tension between motion and stillness comes through in the body-hugging tailoring that really confines your body and layers of fabric that burst out from inside.
Your collection takes cues from the “60-’70s mod and the works of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorwsky and photographer Erwin Bloomenfeld who explored self-transformation. You said, “The idea of self-initiated metamorphosis has always fascinated me- how we shape who we are simply by choice,” What was it about this theme that particularly resonates with you and does this relate to your personal journey as a creative?
Yes, this idea of self-transformation and distilling is something that I resonated with deeply when I watched Jodorowsky’s “The Holy Mountain” (1973), which is a really trippy movie about the life of Christ, which isn’t the focus of mine and definitely not the selling point, for me. What I do love about this movie is the visual, the insane set design and the highly conceptual approach. It’s not a narrative like you would watch on stage; it’s a narrative you’d expect from a dream. There’s a story, but really it’s happening in the weirdest, minimally verbal way.
What I do find very interesting is the strong connection to spiritual practice and the Tarot that Jodorowksky is known for personally as well. There is a specific scene in which Jodorowsky portrays an alchemist that, through an elaborate set design structure, helps who we may think is Christ distil their excrement into gold. While radical, this idea of taking something that we hate about ourselves and turning it into our most valuable asset – I think that’s what fashion is ultimately all about. Not glossing over flaws but embracing them as identity and personality rather than a flaw. I think that’s self-acceptance and why it became such a leading theme for me, on a personal level too. I’m definitely a person who approaches fashion as art (I know it’s ultimately business, but art is business, too; everything is).
I think all artists can’t help but go through what they explore creatively on a personal level. This year I came out as non-binary and changed my pronouns (they/them, she/her), which to some may be old news or even a fading trend, but for me, it’s been a journey of self-acceptance and also learning that you don’t have to go for extremes to express who you feel you are. I don’t have to be trans to admit that I reject societal gender constructs.
What is your favourite piece from the collection, and why and tell us how you’d like a person to feel when they wear an item from your brand?
It’s obviously hard to choose, and my answer may be influenced by how I feel today! I can be mercurial, and for me, each one expresses a moment and a facet of who I am, and it’d be like choosing which element of my body I love best or what is my favourite colour.
That being said, I think that look number 4 (see image) is one of my personal favourites because it just came to me, and it embodies what this collection is about. Taking iconic tailoring details and turning them into dressmaking while highlighting the craft of tailoring and breaking the suit out of gender confines. A dress, a suit, tailored, yes to all, please. When they wear something from my brand, I want people to feel untouchable – do you know that feeling you get when you wear something that is so exciting to you because it shows who you really are inside? So happy about it that people could throw rocks at you in the street if they wanted (I hope they don’t), and the rocks would deflect right off your gorgeous, reused wool confections.
Your collection was produced using deadstock supplied through CSM. How important is it for you to use environmentally impactful materials, and is this something that you will continue to do with further collections? Some designers are working with the concept of quality over quantity with fewer yearly collections. Is this something you would consider in terms of further impacting sustainability?
To be a bit more accurate, some fabrics were sourced from the CSM MA donated fabric store, but some were also through a collaboration with Fabric Society (@fabricsocietystore) working with Liv Khan and Marianna Ferro (also Flair Atelier Ltd), who have been supporting me through the program with fabric supply as I am averse to buying newly produced materials, and I was able to help them, in turn, using my experience with fabric categorisation at Thom Browne.
To be very honest, I think in the small university setting, the timelines are so out of reality that you have to work with what you have around, frequenting local shops like Woolcrest Ltd etc. That can definitely lead students to not think of sustainability when they do school work, which I think is a big shame and also quite ironic.
I feel glad I could avoid that for the vast majority of my programme. Going forward in my business, I plan to work ethically, working only with dead stock and upcycled materials, limiting carbon emissions to the bare possible minimum and monitoring and confirming the life quality of all the people involved in the production chain. Which, at this moment, is very intimate and local as I’m only getting started. I think the next part of the answer is part of my practice, which is really about reusing and reusing – be it in cutting materials or fabric embroidery.
The goal is to keep making reused work of high craft that people don’t even know is reused. That should be the new standard, and I think it might be on the surface, but I know for a fact it’s only for show in some studios around town and out.
Now that you have graduated, you plan to begin selling your items online and to move to sales in selected stores next year. Can you tell us more about the platforms where we will find you?
Yes.
To be frank, I’m taking my time to do things properly. There is such pressure on new graduates by honestly everyone to either jump from 0 to 100 out of the fear of competition and “the next wave of graduates” or just go work for someone else. I may have graduated with my MA only now, but this is hardly my first step in this industry, and I’m not rushing anywhere. I’m intent on building a business model that will last and feels true to who I am.
My first step is setting up DTC platforms which will be through a website that is currently under construction (www.yoavhadari.co.uk), where I’m going to sell pieces of this collection, as well as a new collection in the work along with some NFT drops with platforms like OpenSea.
Next year my goal is to approach wholesale and try it out. I am definitely setting my eyes on stores like DVM and boutiques that value high craft. I say this with a * because I do want to say that I don’t believe in the wholesale market right now; it’s volatile and fragile. There’s a lot of opening to new designers. But a lot of that opening is also exploitative, and in the end, the designers are the last ones in the chain of food of sales. I don’t see that as part of my future as a brand. I believe that today more than ever, you can create your own platform, and if you are smart enough to set it well, it can become a worthwhile operation.
Apart from taking your collection into the retail market, what are your hopes for the future of your brand, and where would you like to be in the next two years?
Big question with a short answer – I want to be in business and still exist as a selling creative. I see my brand evolving into digital realms, and I’m already working on finding new ways to anchor that in reality. It’s quite exciting how limitless that whole realm still is, and I think it’s what terrifies all systemic industries right now.
In the end, my goal is to create something that feels like a new kind of luxury fashion – not in the mould of Paris haute couture or punk-like East London. It’s time that the monopoly of fashion, old institutions and people made way for the future. Crypto is coming; some call it a bubble, but they called everything new a bubble until it wasn’t anymore.
Huge thanks to Yoav for giving us such an insightful and thought-provoking interview.
Having created a breath-taking debut collection that speaks to the designer’s unique creative vision and impeccable craftmanship, Yoav recognises the changing fashion landscape and is tapping into a post-pandemic retail zeitgeist where nothing remains as it was three short years ago.
With an impressive grounding in the industry, Yoav is acutely aware that it is an industry – as witnessed by their desire to take a steady approach to the brand’s development and their willingness to explore and embrace digitalisation and other technological opportunities.
While “DE-STILLED” showed us a designer whose debut collection was built on firm fashion foundations, there is still so much more to see from Yoav Hadari, and we hope you will join them and us on that journey.
You can see more of Yoav’s work at @yoavhadari_
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